The Forever Spell
by fireprince
Summary: Something strange has happened to Fairy Tail while Gray was gone training, and it revolves around Lucy. No one is sure what but it is causing problems and it might have something to do with her new look and abilities.
1. Chapter 1

Gray was riding the train headed back to Magnolia after he had been away for about 4 months when he heard familiar voices on the seats in front of him.

"Come on, its time we headed back home." A somewhat squeaky voice said.

"Yeah but you know what will happen when I get there," A female voice responded. "I just wish it was over."

"Whats over?" Gray asked leaning over the back of the seat to find Lucy and Happy sitting.

"Gray, is that you?" Happy asked in his squeaky voice.

"Of course its me," Gray said and moved to the seat with them. Well it was more like Lucy and Happy on one side with Gray on the other facing them. "Where is everyone else?" He asked looking around.

"It's just us," Happy said and nudged Lucy who shook her head no. Gray studied them for a bit then was surprised, both looked different. Lucy now had colored streaks in her hair and it was longer, she was also wearing black skin-tight pants and a blue half shirt (it shows off her belly but covers her shoulders). Happy it looked like had gotten bigger and more masculine which Gray wasn't sure was possibly for a cat but that's how Happy looked.

Happy sighed then asked Gray.

"You on your way back?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I really missed everyone while I was gone. What happened to you guys, you look different?"

"Well it all started soon after you left and mmmppphhh..." Happy started talking until Lucy placed her hand over his mouth then whispered in his ear. "Fine" Happy said then turned back to Gray. "I am supposed to let you see for your self when you get back to the guild."

"Magnolia next stop." Came over the loudspeaker and Lucy sighed in relief. They unloaded in silence and started walking towards the guild. Gray wanted to ask what was going on but figured he would wait and ask someone who might be more forth coming with the answers like Mirajane. He took two steps on the road that leads directly to the guild and realized the other two weren't following him. Gray turned around and noticed they were going down a different street that he knew led to Lucy's house.

"Hey aren't you two coming to the guild?" He asked. Lucy shook her head no and just continued on. Happy flew over to Gray.

"We will be there tomorrow, Bye." Happy said then flew over to Lucy. Gray noticed that Happy's wings had grown as well and looked stronger than before. Gray shook his head.

"Must be loosing it," he muttered under his breath. Then he continued on his way. When Gray got to the guild hall the first thing he noticed was the quiet, Fairy Tail was never quiet. He threw open the doors to find the entire guild there, which at first didn't seem strange until he noticed that everyone was split into three groups. The two big groups covered the main room and were glaring at each other. The other group which was the smallest one sat in a corner watching the main room.

Gray walked over to the bar.

"Mirajane what is going on in here?" He asked the white-haired mage.

"Oh Gray welcome back," She said without taking her eyes off the two sections. "Its just about time for the fight of the night." Gray was stunned, since when did Fairy Tail time their fights. That was when Natsu stepped out.

"Hey sissy side over there, isn't it about time for you to say goodnight and be tucked in by your mommy," Natsu taunted. At his voice Gray had stood up expecting Natsu to be talking to him but Mirajane put a hand on his arm and shook her head. Then Erza stepped out.

"Coming from you that's a miracle indeed. Since after all the loser side over there still needs to be fed their mommys milk," Erza taunted right back, and that's when it hit. Both sides rushed for each other and the fight was on.

Gray looked around and noticed that the small group that had been sitting was now standing around the room stationed at different spots keeping an eye on how things were going. Gray turned wide-eyed to Mirajane.

"What happened here?"


	2. Chapter 2

The next day Gray sat at the bar stunned to silence; everyone was sitting down waiting quietly. He was able to see who was on which side and noticed that teams were separated like Levi and Evergreen were on the side with Natsu but Jet, Droy, Freed and Bixlow were on the side with Erza.

Then the door opened, everyone's head came up and swung towards the door just in time to see Lucy and Happy coming through. Instantly the quiet crowd were on their feet with a yell.

"Lucy!" Everyone yelled and Lucy smiled back nervously as they swarmed her; it was so bad that Gray couldn't even see Lucy. Happy, luckily enough, hadn't gotten caught in the sure of bodies and flew over to sit next to Gray.

"Hi, Gray," Happy chirped and Gray nodded still focused on the mob then he suddenly turned to the blue exceed.

"Why didn't you fly Lucy out of that mob too?" He asked demandingly. Happy frowned.

"Lucy made me stop after the time that Erza and Natsu almost took off my tail," Happy said then showed the ice mage the scar on his tail. "It took Wendy nearly an hour to heal it enough that I wouldn't lose it." Gray was shocked. "But I don't blame them. Lucy told me they weren't themselves at the moment and she was sure that they would apologize when they are back."

Gray mulled over that as he turned back to the crowd, Lucy had almost broken through. So far what he could tell was that whatever was going on in Fairy Tal revolved around Lucy, now he just had to get the whole story.

Lucy finally stumbled through the last part of the crowd and sat down next to Gray. Mirajane immediately put two glassed in front of the blonde, one full of water the other a strawberry smoothie. Lucy smiled in thanks at the white-haired take over mage. Gray waited while Lucy drank her cups and caught her breath then he pounced.

"Alright I want to know why Fairy Tail or at least most of it is acting this way?" He demanded. Lucy sighed and set her cups down.

"The truth is I don't really know, no one does. I came into the guild one day a couple of months ago and they were like this," Lucy said waving her arm at the crowd. Gray noticed then that the crowd was staring at Lucy intently, Lucy noticed what he was looking at and rolled her eyes. "Don't worry they will only be like that for another couple of minutes." Gray looked at Lucy shocked and she laughed. "Sorry it's just we've done many different experiments in the time you've been gone. Some of it more helpful and useful that others. But each got a response."

"What kind of experiments?" Gray asked warily, Lucy laughed again.

"Don't worry its all harmless stuff, for them at least," She said motioning to the crowd. "It only gets dangerous for those on the outside."

"How dangerous?" Gray asked.

"Well I'm sure Happy told you about his tail, that was the most dangerous part, OH" Lucy exclaimed. "Except the one time everyone was infected except Happy and I. Ooh I thought the building was going to come down on everyone. Now we know that if I am singing the immunes have to wear earplugs." Lucy gestured to the small crowd sitting down watching the bigger crowd.

"What?" Gray exclaimed and jumped to his feet. Lucy jumped at his exclamation and instantly a body was between them.

"Don't scare Lucy-sama, Gray," A female voice demanded and Gray was stunned to see Juvia standing between them. The blue haired water mage was actually trying to intimidate him not to mention did she just say his name without the -sama and he realized this was the first he'd seen of her since he had gotten home. Gray frowned and opened his mouth but Lucy beat him too it.

"It's alright, Juvia, Gray didn't mean to scare me. I'm fine." Lucy put her hand on the girl's shoulder and Gray was stunned to see the water mage smile and move.

"As you say Lucy-sama," Juvia continued to smile at Lucy but as soon as Lucy turned her head Juvia glared at Gray. Gray was shocked to say the least what ever was wrong with Fairy Tail was serious.

"Lucy..." Gray started to say something but when he turned to the celestial mage she was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Lucy avoided Gray the next few days. They had found out that prolonged time spent with the blonde had made even the immune's flip out. She didn't want it to happen to anyone else. Besides she needed to meet up with the one person she had trusted with the one person she could trust to research this problem since Levi was one of those who were not immune. It was late at night when she went to meet him

"Happy, I have to go out but I'll be back soon," Lucy told the blue exceed who was living with her now that Natsu was under the spell and Happy was not. "Tomorrow don't forget it's your turn to pick out the job request."

"Aye!" Happy said as he continued to eat. Lucy knew that he would fall asleep soon after he finished. She left her apartment smiling and headed towards the guild. Soon a male wearing a dark cloak joined her on her walk. Even though Lucy couldn't see his face she knew exactly who he was and what he looked like.

"So what do you have for me?" Lucy asked straight out. She had learned in their recent encounters that he didn't do small talk.

"I haven't learned how to fix the problem yet but I have learned some of the cause behind it," the figure said in his deep, smooth voice. Lucy stopped and faced him, she didn't say anything just waited. The figure stopped as well and Lucy saw a flash of white in the cowl of his cloak, so she knew he was laughing at her. Ooh just wait till she told that specific person about this then he wouldn't have so much to laugh about. Lucy put her hands on her hips and started tapping her foot, he chuckled and Lucy burst out with her threat.

"I am going to tell her you were making fun of me," Lucy said and he stopped.

"Ok,ok no need to bring in your trump card. After all she is the reason I'm helping you," he said then threw back the hood to reveal blue hair and a blue tattoo over his right eye.

"I know, Jellal, I am grateful and I know Erza will be happy to hear that," Lucy said with a smile, Jellal gave a small smile back.

"Anyways what I discovered was in your family history on your mother's side this has happened many times over the years. Usually from what I read was that eventually it gets to be too much for the people it affects and they kill the girl the spell surrounds."

"Kill?" Lucy whispered in shock at his words.

"Yes,kill, but the biggest thing I learned was no matter the time period, and it varied, the girl was only killed after she had a child usually a daughter. Though I did find 2 instances where the curse was broken. I also found the first affected and why," Jellal said.

"So it has been broken before but not completely. How did it start?" Lucy mused.

"Well what I found,"Jellal spoke and got Lucy turned and walking again. "is an ancestor of yours was apparently really popular with the boys," Jellal grinned. "I read that she fell in love with this one guy who was apparently engaged to a pretty powerful witch." Jellal and Lucy made it to Fairy Tail but instead of going in they went around to the back. "It seems the witch didn't like the fact that your ancestor stole her guy and cursed her. All I've gotten so far about the actual curse is strength of heart something about one and then true then faithful and the last line has wins in it. That all I got." Jellal said as the continued to walk. Fairy Tail was currently empty so no one would see them. They had been making this same walk for the past two months sporadically to share information, always late at night because he didn't want to get caught. It had actually been a happy accident that Lucy had run into him and he had been willing to help.

"Alright well at least we have a start. Do you think you can find out more?" Lucy asked him and Jellal nodded.

"I'm going to do more digging into the two cases and into the full words of the curse," Jellal smiled and held Lucy's hand for a second to squeeze it then let go. "Don't worry we will figure this out." They then parted amicably, with hope and a sign for when he had more info.


	4. Chapter 4

Lucy and Happy walked into Fairy Tail with the usual mob greeting. Happy flew over to the request board to pick out a job, and that's where Gray found him.

"Hey Happy," The blue haired ice mage said and stood next to the blue exceed.

"Hi Gray," Happy said not even glancing over. Since he didn't find anything he liked Happy flew over to Mirajane to see what she had leaving a stunned Gray behind. "Hey Mirajane do you have anything special for Lucy and I?" Gray followed the Exceed to the bar and sat down next to him.

"Special?" Gray asked and was ignored.

"Sorry Happy the only special one I have asks for a team of 3," Mirajane says.

"Oh" Happy says sadly.

"Why don't I go with you guys then?" Gray asked and the two mages turned to him in surprise. "What you actually thought Lucy ignoring me would work." Mirajane looked startles in the beginning then started laughing, Happy soon joined in.

"Whats funny?" Lucy asked as she stepped up to the bar. The others stopped laughing and Mirajane quickly spoke up.

"Gray just had a great idea!" the white-haired takeover mage said brightly but warily. Gray knew that nothing really scared Mirajane so why was she wary of the blonde celestial mage.

"Really?" Lucy asked. "And what's his idea?"

"Well we were looking at this job and we were talking and well..."

"I want to go with you on this job since they requested 3 mages." Gray announced interrupting the rambling bartender. Lucy blinked a few times.

"No" She stated firmly then turned to walk away but Gray stopped her by grabbing her arm.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because I don't want anyone else in Fairy Tail to fall to this curse and if you haven't noticed I don't stay very long with anyone but Happy. That's because being near me just makes this curse worse," Lucy said then raised an eyebrow at Mirajane. "You know that."

"That is true but so far Gray hasn't been infected yet so maybe we should test him," Mirajane smiled. Lucy didn't respond as she looked over at the expectant faces in front of her, Gray was determined, Happy hopeful, and Mirajane suspiciously joyful.

"Fine" Lucy gave in with a sigh. "Mirajane if you would get everything ready. I will warn the others to prepare. Oh and please pick something soft." Lucy then walked away and over to the group of immunes, while Mirajane walked away as well.

"Prepare for what?" Gray asked the blue exceed who laughed.

Sorry this one is short. I will try to make all the others longer.


	5. Chapter 5

Lucy stood on the wings on the stage with Mirajane going over the checklist.

"Ok so all those who need it have their ears padded and are in place spread out along the edges of the crowd, please tell me you picked something soft and soothing."

"Well its close," Mirajane said with a smile then shoved Lucy on to the stage. The curtain slowly raised and the crowd grew eerily silent as Lucy stood waiting. As the music started Lucy cursed Mirajane but she opened her mouth and began to sing.

(So Lucy is singing When You Say Nothing At All by Allison Krauss)

_It's amazing How you can speak Right to my heart _  
><em>Without saying a word, You can light up the dark <em>  
><em>Try as I may I could never explain <em>  
><em>What I hear when You don't say a thing <em>

_[CHORUS:] _  
><em>The smile on your face Lets me know That you need me <em>  
><em>There's a truth In your eyes Saying you'll never leave me <em>  
><em>The touch of your hand says You'll catch me Whenever I fall <em>  
><em>You say it best When you say Nothing at all <em>

_All day long I can hear people Talking out loud _  
><em>But when you hold me near You drown out the crowd <em>  
><em>(The crowd) <em>  
><em>Try as they may They can never define <em>  
><em>What's been said Between your Heart and mine <em>

_[Repeat chorus twice] _

_(You say it best When you say Nothing at all _  
><em>You say it best When you say Nothing at all) <em>

_The smile on your face The truth in your eyes _  
><em>The touch of your hand Let's me know That you need me <em>

_[Repeat chorus] _

_(You say it best When you say Nothing at all _  
><em>You say it best When you say Nothing at all) <em>

_The smile on your face The truth in your eyes _  
><em>The touch of your hand Let's me know <em>  
><em>That you need me <em>

_(You say it best When you say Nothing at all _  
><em>You say it best When you say Nothing at all)<em>

As Lucy finished singing the crowd went wild, they were throwing kisses and catcalls, and were cheering loudly. Lucy smiled and waved back then she exited stage left. For two hours Lucy was nowhere to be found until the crowd calmed down. Mirajane walked over to where Gray was sitting. He hadn't moved a muscle since Lucy stopped singing. Gray looked up at Mirajane and only had one thing to say.

"Wow!"

After the two hours and the crowd had settled Lucy appeared and sat next to Gray.

"You have a beautiful voice," he said before she could say anything. Lucy blushed slightly before clearing her throat.

"Alright since apparently you aren't affected you can come on the job with us," Lucy said quietly. Happy, who was sitting with Gray, cheered and flew off probably to go tell Mirajane.

"How did you discover that they are affected by your voice?" Gray asked and Lucy grimaced.

"I was humming to myself one day and the song had an angry undertone. Lissana was the one that noticed the effect it was having on the crowd. Then we did experiments with different tunes. We even discovered I can put everyone to sleep with the right song." Lucy said and smiled slightly then she got up. "Sorry but its time that Happy and I left for the night. We will see you tomorrow at the train station 10 am." Gray nodded. Before Lucy left though she had to talk something over with Mirajane.

"Mirajane I need to know if what happening with Gray has to do with his magic or if he's really immune like Happy. We already know visitors are affected so..." Lucy requested and the white-haired mage agreed. Mirajane would request that Lyon show up on the day that Lucy would return.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day the day dawned bright and clear as Lucy, Happy and Gray boarded the train headed towards the town of Alventar (I made up the name). It was a silent ride, the three of them uncomfortable with each other and the changes that had come. They got off the train after 3 hours then walked the rest of the way to a small village of Des, where they had the job. They were told that the client was out at the moment.

"Lets explore. Can we Lucy?" Happy asked.

"Sure" Lucy said with a smile. Happy cheered then flew ahead of the two humans.

"You really take care of each other, don't you?" Gray said.

"Yeah," Lucy said and though she smiled it was a sad one. "We both miss the way things used to be with everyone but we are doing the best we can." Lucy nodded towards the blue exceed. "I really rely on the little guy and he has gotten much stronger. He now has a fighting form it's actually really cool. He..."

"Lucy!" Happy interrupted her. "Don't tell him. I want to surprise him." Happy landed on Lucy's head.

"Alright Happy I wont say anything," Lucy said with a smile.

"So what else has changed about you besides your hair?" Gray asked.

"Well my abilities have changed as well, though I am still a Celestial Spirit wizard it's not the only thing I can do now," Lucy explained

"Really like what?" Gray asked.

"You know," Lucy smiled at him, a grin full of mischief. "I think I will let you see for yourself." Then with Happy still perched on her head, Lucy darted forward into the crowd. Gray followed and they spent the next few hours having fun. On their way back to meet the client Happy made and interesting observation.

"Gray, you don't strip anymore!" Happy exclaimed and Lucy turned an inquiring eye to the blue haired ice mage. Gray blushed and mumbled his answer.

"I got rid of the habit."

Lucy and Happy grinned at him. Then the three Fairy Tail mages walked into the Town Hall where they were to meet the client.

A man came out, he was wearing a suit and had his hair neatly done and shook Gray's hand.

"oh, the Fairy Tail mages," He smiled at Gray then frowned at Lucy and Happy. "I thought I requested 3 mages?" Lucy, Happy and Gray exchanged a look.

"There are three of us," Lucy said and the man glanced at her with a sneer.

"A woman and a cat can not be mages, especially when it's needed to do any real work." The man then turned back to Gray. "This might be a difficult job for you by yourself. There are three monsters that are..."

"Excuse me," Lucy said politely then sent a hard, cold look at the man. "Did you just dismiss my partner and I?" Happy grinned, Lucy was not happy this would be fun.

"I beg your pardon mademoiselle but women are not strong wizards," the man said and Gray took several steps back. He knew many powerful women mages and none of them put up with guys like this jerk. "and cats are not wizards at all."

"How about we prove you wrong," Lucy said and took a threatening step toward the man. He blinked at her but Happy and Gray could see that he was too stupid to be scared.

"I beg your pardon," the man said.

"I and my feline friend here," Lucy waved her hand at Happy. "will defeat the three monsters by ourselves and you will double the reward." Happy snickered lightly and the man flushed red.

"Wwwwwhat... why should I do that?" He stuttered.

"Well if we don't defeat them tonight we will pay you the reward amount." Lucy could see the greed practically pouring off the man.

"Fine" he said and straightened to his full height straightening his clothes. "I will agree to this proposal but you must bring proof as well as your partner must stay here." The man gestured to Gray.

"Fine," Lucy said then turned and walked away. "Come on, Happy. Stay here, Gray."


	7. Chapter 7

Lucy had Happy fly her to the highest point in the city, where they could see everything going on. They waited till a quarter to 12 and that's when the monsters showed up. One came from the east, she was tall and glowed green, another from the west, short fat and he was blue, the last came from the south and it was a little kid who was completely dark.

"Happy, you get the blue one. She probably uses some sort of water magic." Lucy said. Happy grinned, nodded and flew off. Lucy studied the remaining two then grabbed two keys. "Gate of the Lion, Gate of the Goat, Loke, Capricorn." Loke and Capricorn came out in a puff of smoke.

"Lucy,love,"Loke said and came over to give Lucy a kiss on the cheek. Lucy sighed and allowed it. Capricorn just bowed silently. "Capricorn you get the green lady. Is there a specific element you would like? She probably uses some sort of Earth magic."

"I will take water if I may," Capricorn said and Lucy smiled. Then she reached up and grabbed a blue piece of hair, or at least that's what it looked like, then she cast it on Capricorn. He changed as soon as it touched him, his shirt changed to blue, his tie to white and the white markings on his pants changed to light blue. His glasses lightened to a blue color. He bowed then jumped.

"Loke, you get fire," Lucy said then pointed to the black child. "Do try not to damage anything." Lucy reached up grabbed a red hair and threw it at the ginger haired spirit. Loke got flames on his pants and jacket, and a touch of red in his hair. Loke bowed then jumped. Lucy just waited then called out, "Keep a piece for proof." Her voice traveled to all three of her companions. Lucy never moved just waited, slowly the three returned. Capricorn first returned with a handful of green hair.

"She left and promised to never return," Capricorn said and slowly returned to normal. Then Loke returned carrying the child with him.

"So this kid is looking for his mother and father and was only going after the townspeople because they were mean to him," Loke said then looked at Lucy who nodded.

"We will help him find his family," Lucy said then Happy flew up with a blue piece of skin in his mouth.

"Lushy, Aye whon." Happy said though the words were jumbled.

"Congratulations, Happy." Lucy said with a smile then took the three pieces of proof and jumped off the roof. Loke and Capricorn went back to the Spirit world and Happy flew down with Lucy. She landed on the ground with the kid in her arms freaking out. "Oops sorry kid."

Lucy and Happy strode into the town hall where Gray was waiting for them and threw the two pieces at the man who had hired them.

"Here is the proof of two of the monsters and here is the third," Lucy said holding the boy in her arms.

"Why did you not kill it?" The man asked in horror.

"Because he is just a child looking for his parents and apparently this town is not a very nice one, so if you would not mind I would like to get my reward money so I may leave this awful town who could not even bother to help a small child," Lucy said and glared at the man. He gulped then ran off. Gray came up to Lucy.

"So what are you going to do with the kid?" Gray asked and Lucy smiled.

"This," she said then grabbed one of her keys. "Open gate of the Ram, Aries." Aries in her pink fluffy outfit appeared.

"I'm sorry." She said automatically and Lucy sighed.

"Aries would you mind taking this kid into the forest and looking for his parents?" Lucy asked.

"By myself?" aries asked.

"No your right, hmmm. Aw I know. Gate of the Lion Loke." Lucy called again. and Loke appeared. "Loke would you mind helping Aries search for the kids parents?" Loke bowed then took the held out his hand for Aries who had the kid in her arms. They walked out.

"How long can you keep their doors open?" Gray asked.

"As long as I need to," Lucy said then turned as the man came back into the room with a bag of money.

"Here take it and leave," the man said. Lucy jingled the money in her hand, the weight was approximately correct.

"If you cheated us in any way I will be back," Lucy said then turned and walked out the building.

"Stupid man," Happy said as he flew after Lucy.

"You should never antagonize a Fairy Tail female," Gray said as he followed. "They are what makes Fairy Tail so strong."


	8. Chapter 8

Outside of town hall the three Fairy Tail mages looked at each other than busted out laughing.

"Woohoo. that was so much fun," Happy said.

"Yeah" Lucy agreed then took a deep breath. "Alright where should we stay tonight?"

"I want to stay outside," Happy said. Lucy smiled then turned to Gray with an arched eyebrow.

"That's fine with me," he shrugged.

"Ok then you guys go find us a site and I will get us some food," Lucy said and they split up.

Happy and Gray found a nice site far away from any trail.

"Should we leave markers so Lucy can find us?" Gray asked and Happy started laughing. "Then how is she going to find us?"

"Don't worry about it," Happy said. "Lucy will find us." Then he flew around the site getting it set up.

By the time that Lucy got to the site they had gotten the tent set up and a fire going.

"Nice job guys," Lucy said looking around. The spot they had found had a waterfall and a small lake not too far.

"How did you find us?" Gray asked. "There's no trail or signs or..."

"Gray, " Lucy interrupted him with a smile. "Don't worry about it so much." Lucy patted Gray on his shoulder and strolled by him to sit around the fire. Gray blinked in astonishment, in the time that he had been gone things had apparently really changed.

They ate and relaxed around the campfire until Gray spoke up.

"So since I missed the show earlier, will you guys show me your new abilities?" Gray asked. Lucy sat up and looked over at Happy who was looking at her.

"Well I don't really mind," Lucy said and Happy shrugged. "Then let's go for the big entrance." Happy grinned. Then suddenly the fire got really big and Gray sat back in shock. Then a shadow came at him, all Gray saw was it was big and had fangs and claws.

"Woah." Gray yelled then put his hands together in a defensive position. Lucy started laughing and the fire died some and Gray got his first look at whatever had jumped out at him. It was a blue cougar with yellow lightning marks all along his side.

"Hi Gray," The cougar said and Gray looked at it in shock.

"Happy, is that you?" Gray asked but before he got an answer the ground started moving and a vine wrapped itself around his leg, lifting him off the ground. Then the fire started dancing around, the water from the lake came out and danced with the water and the air whipped around the dangling Gray.

Gray looked around the campsite to see who was doing this and all he saw was Lucy. She was standing in the middle of the moving elements with a smile on her face. Grays heart thumped painfully in his chest and he blinked wondering what was wrong with himself. Slowly everything started settling down and Gray was set down on his feet. Then the Happy cougar flew over to him (yes Happy has his wings in this form).

"So what do you think?" Happy asked.

"Wow you guys have gotten some cool new abilities," Gray said and smiled as Lucy walked over to him, that's when Happy noticed something different about Gray.

"Hey you haven't stripped out of any of your clothes this entire time," Happy stated and Gray looked over at Happy and grinned.

"Nope I broke that habit," Gray said and straightened his clothes.

"Sorry about the hanging upside down bit," Lucy said.

"Don't be," Gray said to Lucy. "I asked you to show me."

"So what about you?" Lucy asked and Gray arched an eyebrow at her. "Well I mean you have gotten stronger I can tell. What changed for you?" Together all three walked back over to the fire.

"You can tell?" Gray asked, Happy changed back to himself and settled himself next to Lucy.

"I've always been able to tell levels of magic, I've just never told anyone," Lucy said with a shrug.

"Why not?" Gray asked.

"Never needed to, no one ever asked. Which is weird when you think about it." Lucy said with a shrug. "As a Celestial Spirit mage I have to be aware of the levels of my magic and looking at others is just the outward glancing of that ability," Lucy looked over at Gray and saw he was thinking about that.

"So where are you now?" Gray asked and Lucy winced, she had hoped that he wouldn't ask. Happy knowing that Lucy didn't like to talk about this stuff moved into her lap and laid down.

"I don't like to look at the others in Fairy Tail," Lucy sighed in frustration. "Due to this curse everyone is stuck in a frozen state and are not progressing at all, my magic is strong but with no one else moving forward I don't know where I actually am." Lucy cleared her throat then looked at Gray again. "Hey you never said what you learned." Gray sighed he wanted to know more about Lucy's abilities.

"Well I have learned mirror ice and can create an unmeltable ice, or at least I think its unmeltable. I was hoping to test it on Natsu," Gray said and saw Lucy's mouth open to ask a question but he just continued on. "Mirror ice is using my magic to send magic right back at the person I'm fighting, the unmeltable ice I can control and move like water not to mention I can make it disappear when it's no longer needed." Gray stopped talking and looked over at Lucy to find both the blonde mage and the blue exceed were asleep lying on the ground. He sighed, got up put a blanket over the two, banked the fire then settled down himself.

"Guess there was no point in setting up the tents," Gray said and fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning before Gray woke up Lucy and Happy came to a realization.

"We cant go back to Fairy Tail today," Lucy said and Happy blinked at her.

"Oh that's right because of the curse you have to stay away for three days." Happy thought about it. "Usually we travel on two days and work on the third but yesterday we traveled and did the job."

"Yeah, I shouldn't have let that guy get to me so much but," Lucy sighed, Happy grinned at her suddenly.

"Does that mean we are playing today?" Happy bounced in joy.

"Playing?" Gray had woken up during their conversation and was wondering what was going on. "Why don't we just go back to the guild today." Lucy and Happy exchanged looks before turning back to Gray.

"Well we discovered that extended time away from the guild makes Fairy Tail freak out as well as too much time there."

"Yeah 3 days is the limit we discovered," Happy said. "After that things get... well messed up to say the least.

"Oh," Gray said and kinda wondered what had happened previously. But then he shook his head, he didn't need to know. "Well then are we playing today?"

"Well playing is really training, " Lucy said but then shrugged. "I suddenly had these new abilities and had to learn how to control them. So Happy and my spirits developed games to help. Happy's abilities grew because of them too."

"It's Loki's turn," Happy said jumping up and down now in his excitement. "Hurry Hurry." Lucy smiled at Happy then gave an apologetic look to Gray.

"Loki," she called out and the Lion spirit appeared.

"Lucy, my love, as always your Prince is here," Loki said and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"You haven't changed," Gray said laughingly.

"Gray, you old fox where have you been?" Loki said walking over to the ice mage and giving him a hug.

"Its nice to see you too, old friend," Gray smiled and hugged Loki back. "I was gone on a mission and visiting some places from my past that I haven't been too in awhile."

"Well you certainly missed the excitement a lot of excitement at Fairy Tail," Loki said.

"So I've learned," Gray said and glanced over at Lucy, who grimaced.

"Loki," Happy said and flew between the two guys getting their attention. "You can catch up with Gray later, right now we want to play."

"Oh is that why you called me out, time for a game, huh?" Loki grinned. "I've got just the game planned, but I will need some help from my fellow spirits." Loki said and looked at Lucy who nodded her head in acknowledgment. "Alright then we are good to play."

"What are we playing?" Gray asked and Loki grinned. Gray took a step back from the Lion whose grin was slightly crazy.

"We are going to play capture the flag."

_**I know its a short chapter but the next one is going to be dedicated just to the game. Fun times!**_


End file.
